The Gift of Knowledge
by Dylan Lee Arwood
Summary: READ AND REVIEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW PLEASEEEEEEEEE FOR THE LOVE OF FREAKIN ILLUVATARthe title is bad but it's about some she hobbit who triumphs or we
1. Forbidden Fruit

Daisy Gamgee, despite her desperate wishes to be on an exhilarating adventure in far off lands, was not immune to the buzzing excitement generated by the residents of Hobbiton. It was a steady build of anticipation like the climbing of a hill until finally one reached the peak, the unbearable few steps until it was possible to pear over the crest and then run joyously down the other side. When the invitations were sent out and outlandish creatures began popping into Bag-end loaded with parcels and coming out empty handed the exhilaration accelerated to such a speed that Daisy could hardly keep her composure. The last few days leading up to Bilbo Baggins party were unbearable and savory at the same time. It was after all Daisy's first party as a lady-well, sort of; and they all said it was to be such a party.

At last the twenty second of September arrived and every hobbit that was any hobbit made their way over in bustling bunches to what was expected to be one of the grandest celebrations held for a long while. Daisy left early, her ears tingling and her eyes twinkling with excitement, to escort the children to Bilbo's gate, accompanied by Samwise and the insufferable Reginard Took, to Daisy's dismay.

For as every hobbit knew, by Reginard's gloating and the fairly stunning amber ring glistening on Daisy's finger, the two were to be wed come spring. The Gaffer was overjoyed; of course, any gardening father would be pleased to see his eldest daughter marry a respectable well to do. Sure, Reginard was of high class and Daisy admitted he was certainly strikingly handsome, but he was as dull as only a gentlehobbit by the name of Reginard could be. But she smiled while other hobbits wished her congratulations and tried to bear Reginard's lengthy lectures on Hobbiton's history and the harvest of Longbottom leaf and other dreadful subjects of that nature.

"Greetings young Gamgees! I am so delighted you could come. Reginard old chap, you are looking well and soon to be Mrs. Reginard, splendid! Enjoy yourselves!" beamed Bilbo while he handed them all gifts. He was obviously as excited as any of the young hobbits who proceeded to run squealing towards Gandalf, tearing the paper from their oddly shaped parcels as they went.

"Why hello Bilbo, Merry Birthday to you!" said Daisy distantly. She had always admired Bilbo and was determined to make the best of the situation.

She steered Reginard through the gates and Sam muttered something about something or other and made his way over to the keg. She felt a little childish and cheerful while ripping the paper off her present and Reginard looked haughty and bored. She noticed a charming roughly hewn flute in his hands, and then the events around her ceased to be of any importance. Daisy unwrapped a small apple shaped fruit which had a sparking remarkable and inexplicable quality about it which cast shadows onto all the other gifts she had ever received or envied. Daisy pocketed instinctively before Reginard could inquire, not that he was apt to be interested in anything as interesting as party gifts.

"Be careful Daisy Gamgee, a bite may just give you what you wish but it will never bring you peace and happiness."

Daisy turned quickly to see the speaker of the gruff whispered warning in her ear and saw only a swish of a grey cloak around the corner. She shuddered; Gandalf had always frightened her a little although she would never admit it.

Daisy glanced hopefully at the food table and the dance floor, but Reginard had already sat down at a table with a very drunk Sandyman and a Bucklander whose eyelids were starting to droop. Daisy stepped towards their table with a sigh and resignation to the boredom awaiting her, but then impulsively ran over to where the other young hobbits were dancing and merrymaking. If this were to be one of her last outings as a girl, then she might as well make the most of it.

She laughed full heartedly as the hobbits whirled around and nimbly tapped their toes to the singing of Nibbs Cotton's bow. Daisy spun dizzily from partner to partner as though her very heart beat in time with Nibbs' fiddle. She was flung from the hands of her bumbling brother Sam into the grasp and gaze of Mr. Frodo which made Daisy blush furiously without reason.

"Hullo Miss Daisy!" he said with a grin, "How do you do?"

"Well, thank you."

Daisy willed Nibbs to keeping playing, she did not want the song to ever end, but it did. Frodo conjured two slices of cake, seemingly from nowhere and asked Daisy to sit with him and watch the fireworks. It was agony to say no to his sweet face and his eyes which were anything but dull, she wondered fretfully if he knew about Reginard and her. For the first time in her life, she was glad to see Reginard when he made his way over; only because he would say no on her behalf, to the life in which she felt she belonged.

"Frodo Baggins, hello. Daisy and I are to be wed...Oh you didn't know? How odd. Well goodbye." Reginard put rejection as plainly as a daisy puts beauty.

"Thank you for the dance Mr. Frodo" she added for his sake, if not for her own because Reginard looked furious at her. Frodo looked a little crestfallen, and Daisy attempted to figure out if she was imagining it or not.

The main party was called into the tent for Bilbo's speech and Reginard suggested that they leave, now that the food was almost done for. Daisy accepted, feeling the night was for the most part a grand success, ignoring Reginard's growling about frivolity and irresponsibility. He walked her to her front steps like a true gentlehobbit and kissed her on her cheek like polite a distant cousin twice removed might.

She entered her dark hole with the same feeling in which she left it. She fell onto her feather tick and let out a sigh, it was not long before she fell asleep smiling. Not because of her stomach which was full of good things, the joy of the party and her mysterious gift (which she has all but forgotten at this point) or the kiss from Reginard. Daisy was not quite sure what it was, but she knew the last face she saw before she drifted off into a dreamless hobbit sleep, was that of Frodo Baggins.


	2. Tempted by the Fruit of another

The majority of the hobbits slept in late on the day after the party, by then the news of Bilbo's disappearance into thin air had splintered through the branches of neighborhood gossip Daisy Gamgee, was unexempt and woke up yawning in the afternoon. After such a long sleep she was inevitable hungry and without thinking, she grabbed her party gift from the bed stand and took a large bite.

A culture of bacterium, two million years in the making can be destroyed by a single oblivious ant. A colony of ants and their hill, built with the strength of two million insects can be in ruins without the knowledge of the hobbit that happened to step upon that particular spot. And a young hobbit's entire perspective can be thrown from a precipice, thousands of years of knowledge fly swiftly by her eyes as her morals and values and her very reasoning for existence is reversed. Her eyes are opened to the infinite potential and promise of each open mind; she is overwhelmed the staggering amount of wisdom previously unknown in her blissful ignorance. While life is unaltered for the Gaffer who continues eating his breakfast, with no concern for the flight of the elves and Rosie Cotton continues to pick the daisies without looking up once in consideration for the gathering storm in Mordor. Simply because Bilbo had handed a particular girl, a particular package which Gandalf had been given by the elven king of Mirkwood two years prior.

Daisy sat up stiffly, momentarily shell shocked by this individual earthquake which had shattered her world. She shook her head and found that the knowledge stuck stubbornly. Then the daze was gone and she felt more enlightened and that her vision was clearer than it had ever been. Reginard was only marrying her because as the eldest daughter, she and her spouse would eventually receive the Gamgee estate. Bilbo's disappearance was more significant than anyone could have supposed, and Gandalf's frequent visits were getting mysterious. Samwise was being all together a little too friendly with Rosie Cotton. Baby hobbits were certainly not brought by elves from Valinor. She-hobbits were being misrepresented in the Hobbiton parliament. There was more then heritage behind Frodo's hermit-like disposition...And other such thoughts of this nature.

The overwhelming sense of engulfment by way of knowledge subsided and was replaced by the overwhelming sense of duty to put right all these wrongs. She dressed rather sloppily and headed out of her door in a huff. She was interjected by Sam.

"Daisy! Good morning! Frodo's giving away left-overs over at Bag-end!" he said gesturing to the mounds of potato salad he had heaped on a plate

"Sam. You and Rosie, you're-

"What?" Sam said defensively and all too quickly

"Nothing, nothing, enjoy your egg."

For some reason she could not bring herself to taint his innocent face with the burden of knowledge. Along with the light it brings also comes shame, mistrust and a hopelessness that at times becomes impossible to bear. She ran down the steps without her usual skip, planning on going for a walk, only world weary people seem to go on purposeless walks. However it was not long before she walked aimlessly straight into Gandalf.

"Daisy, have you eaten the apple of Gulthionel!" demanded Gandalf gruffly

"If you mean the one at the party then yes I did, Mithrandir."

"Mithrandir? It has taken effect quicker than I had thought. Well I suppose it was bound to happen, hobbits have an inextinguishable curiosity but it seldom leads to any intellectual activity. I actually placed the apple aside as a gift for you; I am looking to you to resume my duties. I will not be returning for quite sometime. Now your job is to look after the hobbits, shield them as I have protected you all for years from the toxic evils of the world. And above all else, try to preserve this innocence as best you can. This is the last corner of middle-earth where all is true, pure and uncontaminated. It is crucial for them to remain this way, the children of the world stay children so that we have something worth fighting for, it is worth giving up all else to stop evil's grasp from crushing the wholesomeness of the shire in it's clutches. Do you understand? I cannot make it any clearer than that at the moment, I must be off."

Dumfounded by his straightforwardness, Daisy stood paralyzed for a few moments, allowing the magnitude of Gandalf's speech sink it. He was already riding at great speeds on a steed of copper brown towards the woods. The apple had intensified an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and it was torture to remain at unawares of what was actually happening. She briefly considered following him on a pony but fortunately her logic was intact and she decided against it, remembering Gandalf's request that she defend the hobbits as best she could. Seeing the crowd around Frodo's house, Daisy decided to speak to the hobbit who knew Gandalf best. Frodo also possibly had some inkling of where Gandalf was off to and plus, she wanted so much to see his face again. She waded through the crowd and met Meriadoc at the door.

"I cannot let you in Miss, Frodo is indisposed. All the objects from Bilbo's will are clearly labeled on the table" said Merry importantly

"Oh hush Merry. You know very well I am not after Bilbo's things. I just want to speak with Mr. Frodo." She said indignantly

"Daisy," he whispered and bent low to her ear, "I can't very well let you in with the Sackville-Bagginses around, there would lead a revolt! Wait until they clear out a bit and then come back"

She was tempted to scream something about the rise of the dark lord and more important business then family rivalry's and the dividing of Bilbo's estate. Instead she nodded and then hopped nimbly around the side of the hole to the study window where she rapped smartly. Frodo appeared at the window and she gestured to him. He vanished briefly and then materialized at her side. She supposed he must have had a secret back door that he used as an escape route often. They turned to each other in unison.

"I wanted to talk about Gandalf, Mr. Frodo." She said shakily

"He left, Miss Daisy."

"I know. I know all too much."

"Shall we go for a walk?"

She nodded in consent. They walked towards the woods on paths untrodden by Daisy, but quite familiar to the wandering Frodo. Their conversation swerved to and from the confines of the hobbit consciousness and then some. Frodo seemed reluctant to discuss both Bilbo and Gandalf while Daisy pretended to go temporarily deaf when Frodo asked her about her party gift. Neither pressed the matter and they both quite enjoyed themselves. Soon they returned to Bag-end to relieve Merry but instead found the porch deserted. Frodo invited Daisy for supper and she graciously accepted. Although the cupboards were bare, they scraped together a sizable meal and ate in silence.

After their supper they sat at the fire together and chatted amicably. Again the subject matter was diverse, until they came again to dangerous waters, where they both felt cornered.

"Do you ever feel like you want to know what life is like outside the four farthings?" asked Daisy, "There is such a big world out there and we are so confined in this small box of it" she realized she was breaking her promise to Gandalf in a way, by tempting an innocent. But Frodo was not like other hobbits.

" Do you, Miss Daisy, ever feel as if the world is so big and the magnitude of knowledge so great that you simply want to go back and be a naive child again and hide away from everything threatening and dark?" said Frodo

"You answer me first Mr. Frodo, it's only polite."

"I'd rather you tell me your answer first so then I can adjust mine accordingly like a true gentlehobbit."

"You are really a remarkable hobbit Mr. Frodo."

"The thing about remarkable hobbits Miss Daisy is that; it takes one to know one."

This dialogue was in a decrescendo and their round faces came steadily closer. Daisy leaned closer and kissed him deeply. He sat back slowly and touched his lips in confusion. She laughed and then took his hand in hers and kissed him again. He rumpled her curls in his hands and then kissed her back.

...Fade out because I am really not into doing a love scene right now especially because they are hobbits...EWWWWWWW hobbit sex shudders 


	3. Exile

Time, except mealtime of course, was of no great importance to the hobbits. And so we find Daisy Gamgee, 5 years after old Bilbo's party and mysterious disappearance, holding up her skirts and scurrying down the greenest hill towards the Gamgee's hobbit hole. She had a rather earthily pretty face which had aged passively, hobbits being the type to have none of that futile resistance against aging that the big folk did; in resentment of their mortality.

Nothing mentionable or remarkable had happened, yet nothing completely unremarkable or unmentionable had occurred either. Reginard Took had jilted her and had traveled to visit some extremely distant relatives after Daisy confided in her that she was expecting.

"EXPECTING WHAT?" Roared Reginard

"Why, a baby of course." Daisy said, barely stifling a giggle

And that was that, rather than ruin his reputation, dear Reginard departed saying that he had urgent matters to attend to, proving this whole new kind of dullness that he possessed as well. Daisy supposed he still thought that baby hobbits (or quarterlings as they are fondly called) were brought by Ted Sandyman on stormy nights to warm hobbit holes, which would explain his ignorance in the matter. He knew enough, though to know that it was an unforgivable shame for unmarried hobbits to have a baby and did as most hobbits do, leave the poor girl in this bitter circumstance to either try and explain her situation and face as brutal a shunning that the hobbits could muster, or take her chances under Meriadoc's knife, who was known for keeping his mouth shut and getting the job done. Last Daisy had heard, Reginard was hiding out with his uncle's cousin in Tookland.

Daisy chose neither thank you very much, and went to live with her maiden aunt Rose for the 3 months (hobbit gestation period?) and then returned claiming the poor thing was abandoned. The Gaffer and the rest of Hobbiton were none the wiser and Daisy, along with her mother's stealthy planning, had avoided a social crisis destined to ruin and disgrace her entire family, not to mention Reginard who had as much to do with the coming of baby Ruby as Sandyman himself.

She passed Bag-end where her brother Samwise was bent over the garden watering the violets. She pulled his hair and let out a childish giggle before dodging Sam's flailing arm. Suddenly, the curtain at the window above the flowers was pulled aside and an ominous dark shape appeared at the window. Both hobbits looked up startled and Daisy's heart muscle plummeted in the brief moment of illogic when her brain was caught off-duty, and the foolish heart reacts first often apt to believe it is in danger. Then Sam said pleasantly, although still quite unnerved:

"Why hullo Mr. Frodo"

"Good day Sam, and you Miss Daisy"

"How do you do?" Said a blushing Daisy, curtseying politely

"Well thank you."

He blinked and Daisy gasped, it was her brain reacting this time. She realized that the same pair of elf-like eyes was blinking in her hobbit hole, stumbling around on the nursery floor and bouncing on the Gaffer's knee; the eyes were unmistakable. She reassured herself with the fact that most hobbits were not very observant, but she was still weary. As far as she knew, she was the only one aware of the origin of the baby. Credulous Frodo probably believed that it was an abandoned orphan and thought no more about it and her mother and aunt asked no questions, as if it was a code of honour among the female hobbits. But those eyes, so refreshing and poignant would be enough to tip them off, and Frodo was already considered weird enough without an illegitimate child in the picture.

They had not spoken for quite some time. Not since their night together, thought Daisy with a sigh. He had an extremely distracted look about him, constantly as if his mind was always elsewhere. It was not the old Frodo that she remembered; amicable with a touch of naivety. Over the past few years he had grown unrecognizably introverted and a gleam of greenish greed and hunger shone is his eyes, which had before been the very picture of innocence. He seldom left his hole, and when he did he floated around town with the transparency of a waif. Hardly anyone noticed his presence and he, detected them even less. Somehow some of the "toxic evils" Gandalf had warned her about had seeped in unnoticed and had corrupted poor Frodo. After taking every precaution, Frodo had still changed.

Again Daisy sighed, a habit she had adopted ever since she had bitten into the fruit. She returned slowly to her hole and was met by Ruby on the porch.

"Daisy! Today Sam showed me some flowers and guess what they were called?" she said with a glee Daisy could no longer muster.

"What?" Daisy asked in earnest, her eyes almost welled at the sight of the old Frodo staring out at her through the girlish perfection of four year old Ruby

"I said guess!" she laughed shrilly

"Were they daises perhaps?"

"Why yes they were! That's your name too! You should have been there Daisy. Where did you go?"

"I went...For a walk."

In truth, she was always on a walk. She was looking for someone who might tell her something that remotely resembled news. News in the knowledge forsaken town of Hobbiton often was no more then spiteful octagonal gossip and those who knew anything at all, were not likely to discuss it with a young woman like Daisy. The agony of partial knowledge is quite similar to the agony that any middleman experiences. She was quite angry at Gandalf for cutting a peephole in the box of her existence; it drove her to acts of pure frustration.

She began to chop a turnip for the Gamgee supper when she heard a gruff voice singing distantly. Daisy started to hum along in spite of herself.

_The fire burns in chimney bright_

_The shadows shy away from light_

_An 'eve so weary, dark and cold_

_Is pierced by blazing flames of gold_

_Strike up a flame, turn out the night_

_What we cannot fix or try to mend_

_We hide in dark what may offend_

_Shut out the evil from our cage of glow _

_It shan't be seen, it shan't bring woe_

_Hidden and harmless beyond the bend_

_Though bring harm it may, ere the end_

_For now, we are safe draw closer friend_

_Strike up a flame, turn out the night..._

The turnip rolled to the scrubbed wooden floor as Daisy saw a glimpse of the point of a gray wizard's hat through the shutters. She placed down her knife and ran with a purpose towards her door. She wrenched it open and saw that Gandalf had already stepped inside Bag-end. Daisy decided to go wait with Sam until Gandalf came out again, Frodo was not likely to chat for long and then Daisy would get her answers.

She hurried over to where Sam was snipping the grass under the window and she lie down in the grass next to him and put a finger to her lips. She had not planned of eavesdropping, but Gandalf and Frodo were talking all too loud about a number of all too interesting subjects, she could not resist. Gandalf asked Frodo to bring him something and, by the urgency she sensed in his voice, this was not some common household object. She shushed Sam again but there was no need, he had already ceased cutting the grass and was evidently in awe. Frodo cried and more was said, most of which made no sense to Daisy whatsoever, until Gandalf recited some verses that chilled her blood.

_One Ring One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne  
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.  
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,  
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them  
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie. _

The two Gamgees lay silently shivering beneath the window sill in the warm night. Frodo and Gandalf were still muttering away but Daisy could no longer listen. She lay horrified. The verses were all too familiar and she was quite aware of where she had heard them before and the thought of such evils so close to the shire, was deafening. While sauntering in the woods one day she came upon two pitch black ravens from which she hid, impulsed by an unexplainable instinct to stay out of their sight.

"Baggins of the Shire." One raven said maliciously, "What does my lord wish with such a futile creature as a hobbit."

To which the other Raven replied by repeating those haunting, dark rhymes to his companion before they flew off in unison, cackling over the shire. A frightened Daisy fled back to Hobbiton, erasing that ridiculous occurrence from her thoughts, not wishing to be thought as mentally ill. But it had not been erased from her mind, she had dreamt about it for weeks, waking up in a cold daunting sweat, claustrophobic in the darkness.

She came back to the patch of grass beneath Frodo's window with a start when a hand reached abruptly and roughly for Sam and pulled him up by the ears. She stifled a scream and dodged Gandalf's second plunge beneath the window by rolling into the flower bed. She dared not to breathe as Gandalf scolded Samwise while Frodo chuckled in undertones. Sam kept glancing at Daisy, aghast as Gandalf discussed some type of perilous quest as Frodo's companion. Daisy looked quite pityingly yet helplessly at poor Sam and inched quietly back to her hole on her hands and knees. She kept her eyes on the window and when the coast looked clear, she straightened herself up and sprinted to her round blue door. Her sigh of relief was cut off abruptly however as she glanced back at the window of Bag-end and felt as if she had been stabbed in her chest. It became a gasp when she saw, Frodo's eyes, staring directly at her, wide in disbelief and fear. Daisy Gamgee threw open her door and slammed it quickly behind her.


End file.
